Department for Transport

Aviation: Noise

Philip Dunne: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what provisions are included in the Air Traffic Management and Unmanned Aircraft Bill 2019-20 to protect national parks and AONBs from aircraft noise.

Kelly Tolhurst: The Bill gives the Secretary of State the power to direct an airport, air navigation service provider or another body to take forward an airspace change that is considered necessary for the delivery of the Civil Aviation Authority’s (CAA) Airspace Modernisation Strategy.Any Airspace Change Proposals that are taken forward as a result will be covered by the department’s existing Air Navigation Guidance which is reflected in the CAA’s airspace change process. The guidance for this process states that, where practicable, it is desirable that airspace routes below 7,000 feet should seek to avoid flying over Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and National Parks.

Aviation: Noise

Philip Dunne: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what (a) scrutiny and (b) appeal mechanisms there are for the assessment of the effect of aircraft noise on (i) Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and (ii) and National Parks.

Kelly Tolhurst: The government expects airports to monitor the effect of aircraft noise on their surroundings, and to seek to address any specific concerns arising from it. There are no specific scrutiny arrangements or appeal mechanisms related to the assessment of aircraft noise on Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) or National Parks.The airspace issues surrounding AONB and National Parks were considered in the department’s airspace and noise project. The outcome of this work was reflected in the Air Navigation Guidance 2017, which the department issued to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in October 2017. The guidance requires the CAA to have regard to the statutory purposes of AONB and National Parks when considering proposals for airspace changes. When airspace changes are being considered, it is important that local circumstances, including community views on specific areas that should be avoided, are taken into account where possible. However, given the finite amount of airspace available, it will not always be possible to avoid overflying AONB and National Parks.

Electric Vehicles: Charging Points

Derek Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the availability of charging points for electric vehicles.

Rachel Maclean: We recognise that putting in place a joined up, easy to use and reliable network of public chargepoints is essential to overcome a key barrier for motorists considering switching to electric cars, and we will continue to work with industry to establish one of the best electric vehicle infrastructure networks in the world.In collaboration with industry, the Government will invest an additional £1 billion in charging infrastructure, ensuring that everyone is within 30 miles of a rapid charging station for electric vehicles. To date, Government and industry have supported the installation of over 17,000 devices providing over 24,000 publicly available chargepoints. This includes over 2,500 rapid chargepoints – one of the largest networks in Europe. The Automated and Electric Vehicles Act gives the Government powers to improve the customer charging experience and increase the provision of electric vehicle infrastructure. This includes powers to regulate the technical standards of infrastructure to ensure easy compatibility with vehicles, to ensure availability of data on chargepoint locations and availability, and to require provision at motorway service areas and large fuel retailers. To improve customers’ experience of using chargepoints, the Government announced in July 2019 that it wants to see all new rapid and higher-powered chargepoints provide debit or credit card payment by spring 2020, and that it expects industry to create a roaming solution across the charging network allowing electric vehicle drivers to use any public chargepoint through a single payment method. The Government continues to monitor industry’s progress in these and other areas.

Electric Vehicles: Charging Points

Derek Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps the Government is taking to raise awareness of the safe use of electric vehicle charging points.

Rachel Maclean: We encourage and support initiatives by all involved in the vehicle and chargepoint industry relating to the safe use of electric vehicle charging points. For example, we welcome updates, as the chargepoint industry matures, in the Code of Practice from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (which includes helpful advice on the avoidance of trip hazards), the wiring regulations (which sets technical standards for safe installations, including earthing requirements) and advice generally from vehicle and chargepoint manufacturers.

A63: Accidents

Mr David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many road traffic collisions there have been on the A63 between the Ferensway Interchange (Central Hull) and North Cave Interchange in the last five; what the location was of those collisions; what serious injuries resulted from those collisions; and how many fatalities resulted from those collisions.

Kelly Tolhurst: The number of personal injury reported road accidents, fatal casualties and seriously injured casualties on the A63 between the Ferensway Interchange (Central Hull) and North Cave Interchange between 2014 and 2018 can be found in the table below. Reported road accidents and casualties on the A63 between the Ferensway Interchange (Central Hull) and North Cave Interchange, 2014-2018 20142015201620172018Personal injury accidents4655444444Fatal casualties00102Seriously injured casualties587146Source: DfT, STATS19   Please note that the number of serious injuries provided is as reported by the police. Since 2016, changes in severity reporting systems for a large number of police forces (including for Humberside police force which covers the geographic area required) mean that serious injury figures, and to a lesser extent slight injuries, as reported by the police are not comparable with earlier years. Adjustments to account for the change have been produced for high level series in the Reported Road Casualties in Great Britain, annual report: 2018. Injury descriptions are available from the CRASH system only since January 2016 for Humberside police force. The most severe injury description as reported by the police for seriously injured casualties on the A63 between the Ferensway Interchange (Central Hull) and North Cave Interchange between 2016 and 2018 can be found in the attached Table A. Please note that this information is as reported by the police and is not the result of a medical assessment. The eastings and northings of each accident for the requested geographical area can be found in the attached Table B. The location of each accident can also be found in user-friendly online maps, for example on the THINK! website (https://www.think.gov.uk/thinkmap/). 



Injuries A63 Central Hull & North Cave Interchange
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Road accidents A63 
(Excel SpreadSheet, 18.38 KB)

Air Routes

Stephen Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what oversight his Department has of the work of the Civil Aviation Authority in (a) setting and (b) maintaining flight routes.

Kelly Tolhurst: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is responsible for deciding whether to approve changes to the UK’s airspace design, including changes to specific flightpaths.In carrying out the activities associated with its airspace role, the CAA has to follow the Department’s Air Navigation Directions and the Air Navigation Guidance. Both of these documents are kept under review and amended as considered necessary.

A50: Uttoxeter

Kate Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to make a decision on the future of the proposed Project B on the A50 Growth Corridor at Uttoxeter.

Kelly Tolhurst: The Government expects to announce its decisions on future investment in strategic roads, such as the A50, before the start of the second Road Period (covering the years 2020 to 2025) on 1 April.

Aviation: Coronavirus

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what meetings he has had with representatives from the airline industry on the implications for that industry of changes to Government travel advice in response to covid-19.

Kelly Tolhurst: The Department for Transport is extensively engaged with the aviation sector in responding to COVID19 and implementing measures to minimise the spread of the disease. Additionally, work is underway across government to understand the wider impacts of COVID19 and the Secretary of State for Transport is regularly briefed on these. The Secretary of State for Transport wrote to Air Carriers and Airports on 28th February. Both the Secretary of State and I are discussing COVID-19 and its implications for the aviation industry with aviation industry representatives during the course of this week.

Electric Vehicles: Charging Points

Derek Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps the Government is taking to increase access to charging points for electric vehicles in rural areas.

Rachel Maclean: Along with the private sector, the Government will invest an additional £1 billion in charging infrastructure, ensuring that everyone is within 30 miles of a rapid charging station. We are already investing nearly £1.5bn‎ between April 2015 and March 2021 to support the transition to zero emission motoring and have put in place a range of grant schemes to support the installation of charging infrastructure that are available in any urban or rural areas across the UK. Local authorities in rural areas are able to take advantage of the On-street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS), which assists them with the cost of installing chargepoints on residential streets. The funding available is for 75% of the capital costs of procuring and installing the chargepoint and an associated dedicated parking bay. In October 2019, the Secretary of State wrote to all local authorities encouraging them to send their strategies for infrastructure deployment and to take advantage of ORCS funding. In January we announced that Government funding will be doubled to £10 million for the installation of chargepoints on residential streets next year. This could support as many as 3,600 chargepoints for those that do not have off-street parking. Our jointly funded £400 million Chargepoint Infrastructure Investment Fund’s first investment round, worth a total of £70 million, will ensure the delivery of a further 3,000 rapid charging devices by 2024, more than doubling the current number of rapid charging devices.

Heathrow Airport: Construction

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the implications for his plans for meeting the net-zero by 2050 decarbonisation target as set out in the Climate Change Act 2008  of the judgement of 27 February 2020 on R (Friends of the Earth) v Secretary of State for Transport and others.

Rachel Maclean: Last week, the Court of Appeal ruled that the designation of the Airports National Policy Statement did not take account of the Paris Agreement, non-CO2 emissions or emissions post-2050, and therefore has no legal effect unless and until the Government carries out a review under the Planning Act 2008.  The Government has taken the decision not to appeal the Court’s judgment. We take seriously our commitments on the environment and reducing carbon emissions. This is a complex and important judgment, which the Government will need time to consider carefully.

Motor Vehicles: Exhaust Emissions

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to decarbonise road transport.

Rachel Maclean: We are committed to going further and faster to tackle climate change. Our bold and ambitious plan to achieve net zero emissions across all transport will help make our towns and cities better places to live, create new jobs, as well as improving air quality and health. We are working with industry and communities around the country to develop the plan to decarbonise transport and expect to publish it in the autumn ahead of COP26 in Glasgow.

Air Space

Stephen Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the role of (a) Navblue, (b) Lufthansa Systems, (c) Jeppessen and (d) other coding houses in airspace modernisation.

Stephen Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what oversight his Department has of the work of (a) Navblue, (b) Lufthansa Systems, (c) Jeppessen and (d) other coding houses in (i) setting and (ii) maintaining flight routes.

Kelly Tolhurst: Coding houses are contracted by airlines to provide coding for their Flight Management Systems. The Department does not provide oversight of this commercial relationship or the work of coding houses. As part of the Aviation Strategy the Department has sought views on how to hold coding houses to account for their work if it results in aircraft deviating from approved flightpaths. The Department has not conducted an assessment of the role of coding houses in airspace modernisation. A key component of airspace modernisation is the introduction of performance-based navigation (PBN) standards which will enable aircraft to more accurately follow approved flightpaths.

Merchant Shipping: Training

Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the progress the Merchant Navy Training Board has made in promoting the training of (a) ratings and (b) cadets since 2015 to date.

Kelly Tolhurst: The Department does not assess the Merchant Navy Training Board’s progress in promoting ratings and cadet training. Officials from the Department for Transport and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency sit on the Merchant Navy Training Board with observer status. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency are there primarily as a regulator of standards against the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW), 1978.

Shipping: Apprentices

Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Education on the take-up of (a) apprenticeships and (b) the apprenticeship levy among employers in the shipping industry.

Kelly Tolhurst: There have been no discussions between the Secretary of State for Transport the Secretary of State for Education on the take up of apprenticeships and the levy amongst employers in the shipping industry.

Aviation: Allergies

Paul Maynard: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make it his policy to regulate the serving of nut-based products on flights operated by UK airlines.

Kelly Tolhurst: The sale of nut-based products on board aircrafts is a commercial decision for individual airlines. However, the Government is pleased to note that a number of UK airlines have taken positive steps to ban nuts and nut products from their aircraft. We continue to encourage industry to take appropriate measures. Government also wants to see improved clarity and consistency in how airlines operating in the UK assist nut allergy sufferers.

British Transport Police: Forms

Mr Richard Holden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will place in the Library a copy of the CID 27 form used by British Transport Police.

Chris Heaton-Harris: British Transport Police officers and staff have carried out an internal search but there is no record of this form. It is possible that the form may belong to the Metropolitan Police or other Home Office territorial forces.

Transport for the North: Finance

Scott Benton: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing a devolved budget for Transport for the North.

Kelly Tolhurst: The Secretary of State keeps the performance and role of Transport for the North under regular review. The legislation which established Transport for the North as a statutory Sub-National Transport Body enables the organisation to bring forward proposals for additional functions to be devolved to them. To date, the Secretary of State has not received any such proposals.

Heathrow Airport: Construction

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure that funding from the public purse for Heathrow airport expansion is allocated in line with the recent judgment on that expansion.

Kelly Tolhurst: The sale of nut-based products on board aircrafts is a commercial decision for individual airlines. However, the Government is pleased to note that a number of UK airlines have taken positive steps to ban nuts and nut products from their aircraft. We continue to encourage industry to take appropriate measures. Government also wants to see improved clarity and consistency in how airlines operating in the UK assist nut allergy sufferers.

Roads: Safety

Conor McGinn: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to his July 2019 policy paper entitled Road Safety Statement: a lifetime of road safety, whether it is his policy to review the research on road safety performance (a) indicators and (b) targets.

Kelly Tolhurst: The Department has commissioned research on road safety performance indicators and targets to establish if there is any evidence to support their effectiveness in road safety improvements.  The research report is due later this year.

Roads: Police

Conor McGinn: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Road safety statement 2019: a lifetime of road safety, published in July 2019, what progress his Department has made on the review on roads policing.

Kelly Tolhurst: Good progress is being made on the review on roads policing, including on the inspection of roads policing and a Call for Evidence to run alongside that inspection. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) have completed their thematic review of roads policing in seven police forces and will be issuing a publicly available report in due course. The Department will be publishing the Call for Evidence shortly.Consideration will then be given to the responses and we would expect to produce the final report on roads policing once all the evidence has been considered.

Bus Services and Railways: Fares

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of ticket prices on (a) train and (b) buses on the accessibility of public transport.

Chris Heaton-Harris: We have made no specific assessment of the effect of train ticket prices on the accessibility of public transport. However, we have frozen regulated rail fares in line with inflation for the seventh year in a row, cut costs for thousands of young people with the 26-30 and 16-17 Saver railcards, and will be rolling out a new Veteran’s Railcard later this year.   Bus fares are primarily a matter for the commercial judgement of bus operators. However, we support council spending of around £1 billion a year so older and disabled people can travel on buses up and down the country for free and a further £250 million in Bus Service Operators Grant to keep fares down and maintain an extensive network. Our commitments in the Better Deal for Bus Users will also help passengers secure best value tickets. On 11 February the Government announced plans for £5 billion of new funding to overhaul bus and cycling links across England. This will include higher frequency services and more affordable and simpler fares. The details of these programmes will be announced in the upcoming National Bus Strategy, to be published later this year.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Heating: Carbon Emissions

John Lamont: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his Department's plans are for decarbonising heating systems in existing commercial properties.

Kwasi Kwarteng: The Department is planning to publish a Heat and Building Strategy later this year, which will set out the immediate actions we will take for reducing emissions from buildings, including existing commercial properties. These include the deployment of energy efficiency measures and low carbon heating as part of an ambitious programme of work required to enable key strategic decisions on how we achieve the mass transition to low-carbon heat. We are developing policies to deliver low carbon heating in the 2020s and put us on the pathway to delivering net zero by 2050. We are spending £2.8bn under the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) between 2018 and 2021 to encourage the deployment of low carbon heating in homes and businesses. The Non-domestic RHI scheme has been open to commercial, industrial, public sector, not for profit and community generators of renewable heat since November 2011.

Alternative Fuels

Stephen Crabb: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to incentivise industry to engage in the Industrial Cluster Mission challenge; and what financial mechanisms his Department is assessing to support the development low-carbon liquid fuels.

Kwasi Kwarteng: The Department is engaging and working closely with industry partners on the delivery of the Industrial Clusters Mission. We are providing funding, through the £170 million Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge, to support industry with the deployment of low carbon technologies in industrial clusters. Through the BEIS Energy Innovation Programme the Department has committed £20 million towards assessing the opportunity for industry to switch to low carbon fuels. The Industrial Fuel Switching competition is supporting four projects based across the UK to trial these alternative fuels, improving our understanding on the impact they may have on industry.

Manufacturing Industries

Mr Richard Holden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment the Government has made of the potential merits of supporting companies to onshore manufacturing supply chains following the transition period.

Nadhim Zahawi: It is in both the UK and the EU’s interests to have a future relationship which maintains the flow of goods, the provision of services, and the continuity of business. We are committed to levelling up access to opportunity across the country, investing in the infrastructure, skills, and technology we need to improve economic performance in all parts of the UK. We will continue to work with companies over the next 9 months to ensure they are well prepared for the end of the Transition Period.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Coronavirus

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if the Government will meet with (a) employer organisations and (b) trade unions on a strategy to manage the potential effect on workers of a covid-19 outbreak.

Nadhim Zahawi: The Government is well prepared for this type of outbreak. We will continue to take all necessary precautions, such as engaging with key industry partners, employer organisations, and trade unions to understand the potential effect of Covid-19 on workers and to discuss their preparedness planning.We are closely monitoring the potential impacts on the UK economy, including on individual businesses, supply chains, and consumers. The Department is working with Her Majesty’s Treasury to actively look at ways to support businesses, especially small-and medium-sized businesses, through this temporary period of disruption. This includes unlocking up to £1 billion of attractive working capital loans to support small businesses, with more as needed.

Business: Coronavirus

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans the Government has to support businesses in the event of reduced (a) tourism, (b) leisure and retail spending, (c) consumer confidence, and (d) spending power during the covid-19 outbreak.

Nadhim Zahawi: The Government is well prepared for this type of outbreak. We will continue to take all necessary precautions, such as engaging with key industry partners to discuss their preparedness planning. Businesses can access a range of finance through the government-owned British Business Bank. The Government is also working with Her Majesty’s Treasury to actively look at ways to support businesses, especially small-and medium-sized businesses, through this temporary period of disruption. This includes unlocking up to £1 billion of attractive working capital loans to support small businesses, with more as needed. We are closely monitoring the potential impacts on the UK economy, including on individual businesses, supply chains, and consumers.

Business: Coronavirus

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he is putting in place to help (a) businesses and (b) customers manage (i) short- and (ii) medium-term supply chain disruption in the event of the widespread outbreak of coronavirus.

Nadhim Zahawi: The Government is well prepared for this type of outbreak. We will continue to take all necessary precautions, such as engaging with key industry partners to discuss their preparedness planning. We are closely monitoring the potential impacts on the UK economy, including on individual businesses, supply chains and consumers. We are also working with Her Majesty’s Treasury to actively look at ways to support businesses, especially small-and medium-sized businesses, through this temporary period of disruption. This includes unlocking up to £1 billion of attractive working capital loans to support small businesses, with more as needed.

Carbon Emissions

Stephen Crabb: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what progress the Industrial Cluster Mission has made; and what further steps the Government is taking with industry to attract the investment required to make industrial clusters effective.

Kwasi Kwarteng: The Industrial Clusters Mission is supported through the £170 million Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge (IDC). This funding is expected to be matched by up to £261 million from industry. Phase 1 of the IDC is now underway, in which industrial clusters will develop plans for the deployment of low carbon technologies and ‘roadmaps’ for achieving net zero. Under Phase 2, up to £131 million will be awarded for projects that will help deliver significant emissions reductions. Up to £8 million will be awarded for the development of the roadmaps. The IDC will also support the establishment of the £20m Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre, which will carry out research and cross-cutting activities to further support decarbonisation efforts in industrial clusters and delivery of the Mission.

Post Office: ICT

Dr Luke Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to ensure that sub-postmasters who are found to be innocent of accusations of theft due to the Post Office's Horizon IT system fault have related criminal records removed quickly.

Paul Scully: Government is unable to comment on individual cases given that the Criminal Case Review Commission (CCRC) is independent in their determination of applications. The CCRC is working hard to progress these cases at speed though and is treating the cases as a group to enable them to review the cases more efficiently. However, within the group of cases the CCRC will still need to assess each case individually, so that they can make a decision as to whether the case meets the statutory test to be referred to the appeal courts. Post Office Ltd has assured Government that it is fully cooperating with the CCRC. ​ More widely in respect of the Horizon case, the Post Office, under its new chief executive officer, has accepted that it got things wrong, apologised and said that it aims to re-establish a positive relationship with postmasters. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is working actively with the Post Office on this matter and will hold it to account on its progress. We are also looking into what more needs to be done.

New Businesses

Sir David Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many business start-ups there were in (a) Bexley, (b) London and (c) England in each year since 2010.

Paul Scully: The table below provides ONS data on new business registrations for VAT and/or PAYE (ONS Business Demography 2018 – Enterprise births, deaths and survivals). To Note: Data is not available for periods earlier than 2013 or later than 2018.  Region201320142015201620172018Bexley1,3401,4551,6051,6401,4101,300London83,60088,580100,920102,13592,30097,300England308,565312,920344,065373,580339,345340,045

Job Creation: Greater London

Sir David Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps his Department has taken to help businesses create highly skilled jobs in London.

Nadhim Zahawi: Through the Government’s Growth Deals for 2015 to 2021, we have awarded the London Economic Action Partnership (LEAP) £435.28 million to support large-scale local growth programmes across London. LEAP brings entrepreneurs, businesses, the Mayoralty, and London Councils together to strategically support job creation in the capital. LEAP’s capital investment programme for further education providers in London will ensure facilities are available to support first-class training that meets employers’ needs.

Energy: Meters

Alberto Costa: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to ensure compatibility of smart meters between providers.

Kwasi Kwarteng: Energy suppliers are now installing second generation smart (SMETS2) meters, which are connected to the national smart metering communications network run by the Data Communications Company (DCC) from the point of installation, so are already compatible between suppliers. First generation smart (SMETS1) meters are being moved onto the DCC’s network so that consumers regain and keep smart services if they switch supplier. Meters are being enrolled remotely, without consumers needing to take any action. Priority is being given to those which have temporarily lost smart functionality.

Flybe

Colum Eastwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to allocate additional funding to the Northern Ireland Executive for the support for staff affected by the collapse of Flybe.

Nadhim Zahawi: Holding answer received on 10 March 2020



The Government appreciates the impact this insolvency will have on Flybe passengers and employees. Our immediate priorities are to ensure passengers are kept informed of alternative travel options, and that employees who have lost their jobs are assisted in accessing support and advice. We know this will be a worrying time for Flybe staff; our Jobcentre Plus Rapid Response Service will help anyone whose job may be at risk. The powers to provide financial support in this situation are devolved in Northern Ireland, and it is therefore within the responsibility of the Executive. The UK Government will continue to closely monitor the situation, working with the Northern Ireland Executive and local partners.

Electric Vehicles: Batteries

Liz Saville Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 2 March 2020 to Question 20598, what recent discussions he has had with the Welsh Government on developing Welsh manufacturing capacity for electric vehicle batteries.

Nadhim Zahawi: Holding answer received on 10 March 2020



Ministers and officials regularly speak with the Welsh Government on issues such as the transition to zero emission vehicles and the impact on the wider supply chain, including batteries, to support vehicle electrification.

Hydrogen

Liz Saville Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 2 March 2020 to Question 20600, what recent discussions he has had with the Welsh Government on supporting the generation of green hydrogen in Wales.

Kwasi Kwarteng: Holding answer received on 10 March 2020



Ministers and officials are in regular contact with DIT counterparts and Welsh Government officials on this matter. We are exploring hydrogen’s potential to deliver against our clean growth goals – meeting our decarbonisation needs and capturing the commercial opportunities of the global low carbon shift. There is tremendous opportunity for the UK to build both internal capacity and export potential for low carbon hydrogen. The future market for all hydrogen technologies could yield around £5.3bn of GVA and create nearly 50,000 jobs to meet demand in export and domestic markets[1]. With South Wales housing being one of the UK’s key industrial clusters, we will continue to work closely with the Welsh Government and local stakeholders on a range of decarbonisation options including low carbon hydrogen.[1] Energy Innovation Needs Assessment, Sub-theme report – Hydrogen and Fuel Cells, October 2019 - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-innovation-needs-assessments.

Hydrogen

Liz Saville Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 2 March 2020 to Question 20600, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for International Trade on the export potential of UK green hydrogen technologies.

Kwasi Kwarteng: Holding answer received on 10 March 2020



While I have not had any direct discussions on this, BEIS officials are in regular contact with DIT counterparts and Welsh Government officials on this matter. We are exploring hydrogen’s potential to deliver against our clean growth goals – meeting our decarbonisation needs and capturing the commercial opportunities of the global low carbon shift. There is tremendous opportunity for the UK to build both internal capacity and export potential for low carbon hydrogen. The future market for all hydrogen technologies could yield around £5.3bn of GVA and create nearly 50,000 jobs to meet demand in export and domestic markets[1]. With South Wales being one of the UK’s key industrial clusters, we will continue to work closely with the Welsh Government and local stakeholders on a range of decarbonisation options including low carbon hydrogen. [1] Energy Innovation Needs Assessment, Sub-theme report – Hydrogen and Fuel Cells, October 2019 - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-innovation-needs-assessments.

Mineworkers' Pension Scheme

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether it remains his policy to make sure that no Mansfield miner, or any other miner signed up to the Mineworkers' Pension Scheme, is out of pocket; and what his policy is on the surplus sharing arrangements for that Scheme.

Kwasi Kwarteng: The Government provides a Guarantee for the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme that ensures that:A member’s guaranteed pension, including inflation increases, will always be paid; andA member’s total pension (including bonus pension) will not fall in cash terms.In addition, the Government has agreed to changes to the scheme rules that will protect all bonuses that have accrued to date. The Government continues to work with the scheme Trustees on implementing those changes. The surplus sharing arrangements have worked well for all parties and I do not intend to review those arrangements.

Parental Leave

Shaun Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government Equalities Office is taking to help promote shared parental leave.

Paul Scully: In the past 2 years the Government has spent over £1.75 million on communications campaigns to promote Shared Parental Leave to parents and employers and has achieved and maintained high levels of awareness of the policy. The Government is also improving tools and guidance for parents and employers to make it easier for them to access the scheme.

Parental Leave

Brendan Clarke-Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government Equalities Office is taking to help promote shared parental leave.

Paul Scully: In the past 2 years the Government has spent over £1.75 million on communications campaigns to promote Shared Parental Leave to parents and employers and has achieved and maintained high levels of awareness of the policy. The Government is also improving tools and guidance for parents and employers to make it easier for them to access the scheme.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Wang Quanzhang

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to his Chinese counterpart on the conviction in Tianjin province of the human rights lawyer, Wang Quanzhang, to a four and a half-year jail term for subversion of state power.

Nigel Adams: The former Foreign Secretary raised his concerns about the conviction of Wang Quanzhang with State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his last visit to China. We also highlighted the case during China's last Universal Periodic Review, and have since directly raised our concerns with the Chinese Government.

Marine Environment: Treaties

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, who will represent the UK at the fourth session of the UN Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity in March and April 2020.

James Duddridge: Holding answer received on 05 March 2020



The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have been closely involved in the negotiation of a new Implementing Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction - the BBNJ Agreement - as an important step forward in addressing the challenges that the ocean faces. The UK is pressing for an ambitious Agreement to be concluded in 2020. It will be a key mechanism in enabling the designation of at least 30 per cent of the global ocean as Marine Protected Areas by 2030. A joint FCO-DEFRA team of officials will represent the UK in these talks based on positions agreed by ministers. The question of Ministerial participation is being kept under review.

China: Nature Conservation

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to his Chinese counterpart on banning the live trade of wild and endangered animals; and what steps the Chinese Government is taking to (a) reduce and (b) eliminate the (i) trade of (A) elephant ivory and (B) rhino horn and (ii) live trade of (1) tigers, (2) pangolins and (C) sharks.

Nigel Adams: The UK is at the forefront of international efforts to protect endangered animals from unsustainable trade and my officials continue to raise the subject regularly with their Chinese counterparts. Specifically, senior officials in Beijing and London have raised concerns with China on proposed adjustments to 1993 legislation on tiger and rhino products. We hosted a high level conference on the illegal Wildlife Trade in London in October 2018. At that conference China co-hosted a session on combatting the ivory trade following their introduction of a domestic ivory ban. On 24 February 2020 China's National People's Congress passed a law banning the wildlife trade and the consumption of wild animals.

Saudi Arabia: Capital Punishment

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations he has made to his Saudi Arabian counterpart on the cases of (a) Ali al-Nimr, (b) Abdullah al-Zaher, (c) Dawood al-Marhoun and (d) other prisoners sentenced to death in that country.

James Cleverly: We remain concerned about the cases of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, Dawood al-Marhoon and Abdullah al-Zaher and continue to follow them closely. We regularly raise our concerns about the use of the death penalty with the Saudi Arabian authorities using a range of Ministerial and diplomatic channels, including our Ambassador and the Embassy in Riyadh. We make clear that the British Government opposes the death penalty in all circumstances and in every country, including Saudi Arabia. This is in line with the minimum standards set out in the EU Guidelines on the Death Penalty of 2008 and the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Arab Charter on Human Rights.

Saudi Arabia: Human Rights

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Saudi Arabian counterpart on the human rights situation in that country.

James Cleverly: The Foreign Secretary discussed human rights concerns with the Saudi authorities during his recent visit. We speak frankly and openly with Saudi Arabia about any concerns we have, including on human rights. Saudi Arabia remains a Foreign and Commonwealth Office human rights priority country, particularly because of the use of the death penalty, and restrictions on women's rights, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of religion or belief.

Saudi Arabia: Visits Abroad

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the cost to the public purse will be of his planned visit to Saudi Arabia.

James Cleverly: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office provides detailed financial reports within the quarterly transparency returns compiled by the Cabinet Office; this will include details of all Ministerial travel.

Islamic State: Accountability

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent support his officials of his Department have provided to the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh.

James Cleverly: As part of our continued support to the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh (UNITAD) in Iraq, the UK announced an additional £1 million in funding in July 2019 to exhume mass graves across northern Iraq and to collect witness testimony. Our Ambassador to Iraq met again with the head of UNITAD, Mr Karim Khan, on 1 March to reaffirm UK support and encourage close co-operation between UNITAD and the Government of Iraq to achieve justice for the victims of Daesh's crimes.

West Africa: Security

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with representatives from the Economic Community of West African States on the security situation in those countries.

James Duddridge: The UK welcomes the recent statement by the UN and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) of their commitment to work together towards peace, security and stability across West Africa and the Sahel. The UK regularly engages with ECOWAS and its member states on tackling terrorism and the underlying causes of conflict in the region. We will continue to identify opportunities for co-ordination and partnership, in particular as ECOWAS assumes responsibility within the framework of the African Standby Force High Readiness element from July.

Israeli Settlements: Palestinians

Kate Osamor: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether his Department plans to respond to the report by the UN Human Rights Office, published on 12 February 2020, on business enterprises involved in certain activities relating to settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

James Cleverly: The UK, along with a number of other European countries, opposed the creation of the UN Human Rights Office's database. We neither encourage nor offer support to individuals or companies who operate in settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Israeli Settlements: Business

Kate Osamor: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what plans his Department has to respond to the publication of the UN Human Rights Office report on business enterprises involved in certain activities relating to settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory published in February 2020.

James Cleverly: The UK, along with a number of other European countries, opposed the creation of the UN Human Rights Office's database. We neither encourage nor offer support to individuals or companies who operate in settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Department of Health and Social Care

Coronavirus: British Nationals Abroad

Mr Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is (a) monitoring the temperature of, (b) distributing relevant literature to and (c) carrying out health checks on all those returning to the UK from countries with high numbers of confirmed cases of covid-19.

Jo Churchill: Public Health England (PHE) is not routinely carrying out health checks or monitoring the temperatures of passengers returning from countries with high numbers of confirmed cases of COVID-19.PHE is working closely with airlines and airport operators to ensure they have posters and leaflets reflecting the latest advice on COVID-19 to make sure passengers know what the symptoms are and what to do if they get them. As well as English, these materials are being provided in eight additional languages from affected areas to ensure this support and advice can be given to non-English speakers at airports. These materials are available at all international airports, ports and international train stations. The Department for Transport is responsible for ensuring the visibility of these materials.In addition, enhanced monitoring is currently in place for all direct flights from areas affected outside of Europe which includes China, including Hong Kong, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Republic of South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.COVID-19 posters is available at the following link:https://campaignresources.phe.gov.uk/resources/campaigns/101/resources/4992General PHE advice on COVID-19 is updated regularly and can be viewed at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-information-for-the-public

Coronavirus

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if the Government will (a) provide a briefing to hon. Members on its public health communications strategy for covid-19 and (b) deploy its behavioural insights team to help reduce the (i) risk of infection and (ii) transmission of that virus society through (A) self-isolation, (B) reduced travel activity and (C) encouraging the support of the public for behavioural changes to reduce the risk of infection.

Jo Churchill: Officials will be happy to provide a briefing on the communications strategy and the public health campaign to hon. Members. Both the strategy and the campaign have been guided by behavioural science and we have been working closely with behavioural scientists to reduce the risk of infection and slow the transmission. We are not yet advising people to reduce travel activity or self-isolate unless they have returned from an affected country. If we do, we will be guided by behavioural science.

Glaucoma

Caroline Nokes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to implement the safety recommendations in the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch report entitled Lack of timely monitoring of patients with glaucoma.

Helen Whately: The safety recommendations in the report entitled ‘Lack of timely monitoring of patients with glaucoma’ are aimed at NHS England and NHS Improvement, the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, NHS Digital and the International Glaucoma Association. All organisations are required to provide a response to the relevant recommendations within 90 days of receiving the report, which the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) publish on their website.NHS England and NHS Improvement will provide an oversight of the implementation of HSIB safety recommendations, through the National Patient Safety Committee. The Committee are working closely with HSIB to establish responsibility for recommendations and the criteria for escalation.

Perinatal Mortality

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to hold discussions with Cabinet colleagues on changes to the length of gestation required for a still-born baby to be issued with a (a) birth and (b) death certificate.

Helen Whately: The Government has no plans to change the definition of stillbirth to include pregnancy losses before 24 weeks of gestation.

Calea: Parenteral Nutrition

Thangam Debbonaire: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what monitoring his Department undertakes on the compliance of Calea UK Ltd with improvements agreed between the company and the Medical and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority in their provision of Total Parenteral Nutrition to NHS patients.

Thangam Debbonaire: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether Calea UK Ltd is the sole provider of total parenteral nutrition to the NHS.

Helen Whately: The Department is in regular dialogue with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and they have advised it continues to work closely with the company to ensure that they make the necessary changes. The MHRA Inspectors have made on-site technical visits, carried out further inspections and its senior management has met with the company on a number of occasions to discuss the improvements which need to be implemented. The MHRA has recently advised that progress is being made and it is currently awaiting the results of a third-party audit, carried out on behalf of the company, which will independently assess the measures implemented to date. Once the MHRA has reviewed the outcome of this audit they anticipate carrying out further inspections to confirm that the company has implemented the necessary changes to bring their aseptic procedures into compliance.In addition to Calea UK Ltd, there are four commercial operations authorised to provide Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) to the National Health Service. There are a number (approximately 40) of NHS units also authorised by the MHRA for manufacture and supply of TPNs across the NHS.

NHS: Migrant Workers

Dr Luke Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of waiving the NHS surcharge for new staff coming from abroad to work in the NHS.

Edward Argar: The Government fully recognises the contribution that international professionals make to the United Kingdom and we remain committed to ensuring that this country still attracts highly skilled people to work here, including for the National Health Service. That is why we have set out plans to introduce a new NHS visa, which will offer an attractive package for NHS staff. The details of the NHS visa will be announced in due course by the Home Secretary.

Diabetes: Podiatry

Derek Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much the NHS has spent on treating diabetic foot ulcers in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

Jo Churchill: Information is not held centrally on the cost of treating diabetic foot ulcers.

Podiatry

Derek Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many multidisciplinary foot care teams there are in the NHS; and if he will make a statement.

Jo Churchill: The information requested is not centrally held.

Podiatry

Derek Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase access to podiatry services; and if he will make a statement.

Jo Churchill: The NHS People Plan work programme is completing a review of all allied health professions including podiatrists and the capacity requirement is being modelled to 2024. This will look at both the current and future capacity need for the allied health professions, including podiatrists in all health care settings.In addition, on 3 March, I launched a £3.47 million recruitment campaign for allied health professionals. The national recruitment drive includes television advertisements, social media content and a new recruitment portal, and comes alongside a new package of financial support for students. From September, students training towards the careers highlighted in the campaign, which includes podiatry, will benefit from a new Government maintenance grant worth at least £5,000 a year.

Addictions: Homelessness

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that homeless people with (a) alcohol- and (b) drug-related conditions are able to access the support they need.

Jo Churchill: The Government is aware that homeless people suffer disproportionate harms from drugs and alcohol misuse and has committed to end rough sleeping by the end of this Parliament.To support this commitment, in the spring Budget the Government has announced £262 million of funding over four years for substance misuse treatment and recovery services for people experiencing rough sleeping or at risk of rough sleeping.We are also providing £2 million in funding to test ways to improve access to health services for people with co-occurring mental ill-health and substance misuse problems who are currently, or at risk of returning to, sleeping rough.

5G: Health Hazards

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has commissioned any research studies on the potential effects of 5G on the ability of the human body to absorb oxygen.

Jo Churchill: The Department funds research on the effects on health of electromagnetic fields and mobile technologies through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and Public Health England (PHE).Most notable current research commissioned by NIHR includes the ongoing Cohort Study of Mobile Phone Use and Health and the Study of Cognition, Adolescents and Mobile Phones at Imperial College London.Whilst no specific research has been commissioned on the potential effects of 5G on the ability of the human body to absorb oxygen, PHE continues to monitor the health-related evidence in respect of electromagnetic fields, including radio waves from developing wireless communication systems such as 5G.

Cancer: Blackpool North and Cleveleys

Paul Maynard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to reduce waiting times for NHS hospital appointments for cancer patients in Blackpool North and Cleveleys constituency.

Jo Churchill: In December 2019 (latest data) performance at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust against the two week wait from general practitioner (GP) referral to seeing a cancer specialist standard was 94.6%, better than the 93.0% performance standard. Performance against the 31 day wait from diagnosis to first treatment for cancer was also better than the performance standard (96%), at 99.3%. However, performance against the 62 day wait standard for GP referral to a first treatment for cancer (85% standard) was not met and therefore a detailed full cancer pathway performance recovery plan has been developed. This forms part of Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s wider single improvement plan and is supported by the Trust Cancer Board to improve cancer waiting times. Specific actions being progressed include:- Redesigning the prostrate pathway to enable faster diagnosis, by introducing a one stop clinic and MRI scanning;- A system wide risk summit for Bowel Screening took place in November 2019 and actions to improve continue to be progressed;- Robustly managing the patient tracking list for all cancer cases; and- Review of multi-disciplinary team clinics are taking place to increase patient flow efficiency.

Infant Mortality: Blackpool

Paul Maynard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of infant mortality in Blackpool over the last 10 years.

Jo Churchill: Public Health England provides an assessment of trends in infant mortality for each upper-tier local authority in England where it is statistically possible to do so. This information is updated annually and included in child health profile snapshot reports.Data for Blackpool Unitary Authority shows an annual rate of between 4.9 and 6.5 infant deaths for every 1,000 live births over the past ten years. In the period 2016-18, the rate was 6.0 per 1,000. No statistically significant trend in the rate of infant mortality has been found in Blackpool. This can be viewed in the Public Health Outcomes Framework at the following link:https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/child-health-profiles/data#page/1/gid/1938133228/pat/6/par/E12000002/ati/102/are/E06000009

Mental Health Services: Recruitment

Antony Higginbotham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the number of mental health practitioners working in the NHS.

Helen Whately: We have a number of national programmes in place focused on improving mental health staff retention, return to practice, overseas and domestic recruitment and improving sickness absence. These include: - providing funding for the fast track mental health social work programme that is delivering around 100 social workers into mental health services each year and supporting the development of social work as a profession in mental health services;- increasing the nursing workforce by expanding the number of nurse training places and launching the ‘We are the NHS’ campaign to highlight nursing opportunities in mental health to increase interest in this profession; and- increasing the number of psychiatry placements available for junior doctors undertaking foundation training.

Menorrhagia

Carolyn Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will respond to the recommendations in the report by the Menstrual Health Coalition, entitled Heavy menstrual bleeding breaking silence and stigma, published in March 2020; and if he will make a statement.

Carolyn Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to report by the Menstrual Health Coalition, entitled Heavy menstrual bleeding breaking silence and stigma, published in March 2020, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that (a) patients and (b) clinicians have access to information on heavy menstrual bleeding; and if he will make a statement.

Helen Whately: The Government welcomes work to raise awareness of heavy menstrual bleeding. Tackling stigma and taboos is an important part of improving women’s health and specific aspects such as heavy menstrual bleeding. It is of course critical that both patients and clinicians have access to appropriate information. NHS England advises that any woman who is experiencing pain, or discomfort due to heavy menstrual bleeding should seek advice from a general practitioner (GP) as a first course of action. Advice for this is available on nhs.uk, where you can undertake a quick ‘Heavy period self-assessment’, which can advise on simple steps that may help, as well as speaking to a GP. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has produced a guideline on assessment and treatment of heavy menstrual bleeding, which was published in March 2018.

Menorrhagia

Carolyn Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report by the Menstrual Health Coalition, entitled Heavy menstrual bleeding breaking silence and stigma, published in March 2020, whether his Department has plans to increase the length of GP appointments for women and girls with heavy menstrual bleeding; and if he will make a statement.

Helen Whately: NHS England advise that general practitioners (GPs) use their clinical judgement in deciding how long an appointment should last for – this is not set out in the GP contract. NHS England is undertaking a national review of access to general practice services with the intention of full implementation by 2021/22. The aim is to offer both improved choice and convenience of appointments, including using different models of access such as digital consultations, longer consultations or group appointments. This is intended to address inequalities in access and improve public and patient satisfaction in access to general practice and primary care services.

Public Health: Liverpool

Paula Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to increase the level of public health funding allocated to Liverpool City Council.

Jo Churchill: The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care confirmed on 10 March 2020, Official Report, column 135, that the public health grant will increase in real terms in 2020/21 so local authorities can continue to invest in prevention and essential frontline health services. Individual allocations will be confirmed shortly.

Coronavirus

Dr Dan Poulter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that retired medical staff will be (a) re-registered and (b) re-certified to practice in the event that they are required to work as a result of covid-19.

Jo Churchill: Holding answer received on 09 March 2020



The General Medical Council (GMC) already has powers and procedures in place to register doctors in an emergency. The Department is working with the GMC and others on their plans, to ensure those who may have recently retired can be called on as necessary.

London Ambulance Service

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will meet with representatives of (a) the London Ambulance Service and (b) the Patients’ Forum for the London Ambulance Service to ensure that the London Ambulance Service is maintaining (i) effective transparency and (ii) an engaged consultative relationship with patient representative bodies.

Edward Argar: The London Ambulance Service remains committed to working with patient representative groups and the wider public, to further improve the care it delivers for Londoners.I will meet with the Ambulance Trust and the Patients’ Forum to discuss the continuation of their partnership.

Intensive Care

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the current capacity in NHS England for patients with (a) respiratory failure and (b) multiple organ failure.

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to increase the capacity of NHS England for patients with (a) respiratory failure and (b) multiple organ failure in the event of an increase in these cases as a result of covid–19.

Jo Churchill: Holding answer received on 09 March 2020



Highly specialised beds will only be needed by a minority of affected patients. As the Chief Medical Officer has said, hospitals are carefully considering how best to flex services to respond to extra demand. NHS England and NHS Improvement are working closely with providers across the country to support this.

General Practitioners

Mr Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many GPs have been contracted to the NHS in each of the last 20 years for which figures are available.

Jo Churchill: Holding answer received on 10 March 2020



The number of full-time equivalent (FTE) doctors working in general practice in England in each year since September 2015 presented in the following table. Data is not included prior to 2015 as improvements were made to the methodology for recording all staff working in general practice and data prior to this is not comparable. FTE  September 2015September 2016September 2017September 2018September 2019All general practitioners (GPs)34,42935,22934,65334,53434,862Source: NHS DigitalNotes:1. Data as at 30 September 2019.2. Figures shown do not include GPs working in prisons, army bases, educational establishments, specialist care centres including drug rehabilitation centres, walk-in centres and other alternative settings.3. Each period, figures contain estimates, for practices that did not provide fully valid General Medical Practice GP records.4. FTE refers to the proportion of full time contracted hours that the post holder is contracted to work. 1 would indicate they work a full set of hours (37.5), 0.5 that they worked half time. In Registrars' contracts 1 FTE = 40 hours. To ensure consistency, these FTEs have been converted to the standard wMDS measure of 1 FTE = 37.5 hours in the table.

University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust: Finance

Jack Brereton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the PFI interest rate is that is charged to the University Hospitals of North Midlands Trust on the construction of the Royal Stoke University Hospital, what the comparable rate is for HM Treasury-funded projects; and what additional funding is provided to that NHS Trust for mitigating any difference.

Edward Argar: As each Private Finance Initiative (PFI) company raises its finance in different ways and from different sources, the most relevant and easily comparable way of describing the cost of PFI finance is the pre-tax nominal project internal rate of return. This rate for the Royal Stoke University Hospital PFI project was 5.70% in June 2007 based on the Government’s standard inflation rate assumption.At the time the Royal Stoke University Hospital PFI was signed in June 2007, the interest rate for loans for capital investment, which was based on the relevant National Loan Fund rates, was 5.65%.Where public dividend capital is made available for capital investment, under current rules Trusts are required to pay a 3.5% dividend on its net assets.

Addictions

Gill Furniss: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the adequacy of funding for support services for friends and family members of people with addictions.

Jo Churchill: Holding answer received on 10 March 2020



No discussions have taken place between the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for Health on funding for support services for friends and family members of people with addictions. The issues that addiction causes are all too often felt by family and friends. The Government is committed to ensuring that anyone with an addiction problem can access the help and support they need to overcome their problem and to help them rebuild their lives and sustain their recovery. There is a network of high quality addiction services across the country to support those who have drug and alcohol dependency issues and their families. Local authorities are responsible for commissioning effective alcohol and drug prevention and treatment services based on an assessment of local needs. Local authorities have received £3.1 billion in 2019/20 to be used exclusively on public health including addiction treatment services. The public health grant for 2020/21 will increase in real terms allowing local authorities to continue to invest in the services they provide. The Department of Health and Social Care, with the Department for Work and Pensions, is providing £6 million, over three years, for a package of measures, to improve outcomes and support for children whose parents are alcohol dependent. This includes a local authority innovation fund; funding for voluntary sector organisations to develop new resources and training; and additional helpline and contact services for children.

Health: Disadvantaged

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to tackle health inequalities.

Jo Churchill: This Government has been clear that it will address the needs of those communities which have been left behind - where too many people lose their independence through ill-health and disability. We are taking action to improve access and outcomes from health services, supporting people to lead healthy lives and working across Government to address the wider determinants of health. Prevention is a priority for this Government. We set out in our Prevention Green paper our ambition to deliver five extra years of healthy independent life and to close the gap between richest and poorest. We will publish our response in due course.

Health Services: Rural Areas

Jeremy Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the recommendations contained in the report of the Morecambe Bay Investigation, published in March 2015, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for his policies of the recommendation that NHS England should consider extending the review of requirements to sustain safe provision to other services to develop and promote a positive way of working in remote and rural environments.

Helen Whately: The National Maternity Review report, ‘Better Births - Improving outcomes of maternity services in England, A Five Year Forward View for maternity care’ reviewed maternity services across the country including in rural and isolated areas.In the 2016/17 clinical commissioning group allocations, NHS England made a change to the allocation funding formulae for remoteness. In part, this funding recognises that services in remote areas, including maternity services, have unavoidably higher costs because the level of activity is too low for services to operate. Further, we know that the challenges faced by services in remote areas are broader than funding which is why we committed in the NHS Long Term Plan to develop new operating models for rural hospitals, as well as to reduce geographical and specialty imbalances in medical posts. As part of this, NHS England and NHS Improvement is working with 35 smaller acute hospitals and local systems leaders to identify and accelerate the spread of new delivery models through peer learning and in partnership with national stakeholders, including the Care Quality Commission and Royal Colleges.

Cervical Cancer: Screening

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 30 January 2020 to Question 7625 on Cervical Cancer: Screening, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the recommendation on self-test cervical cancer screening contained in the review of adult screening programmes in England published in October 2019.

Jo Churchill: The United Kingdom National Screening Committee (UK NSC) reviewed the evidence on the use of human papillomavirus (HPV) self-sampling as a programme modification within the NHS Cervical Screening Programme at its meeting in February 2019. The Committee recognised that HPV self-sampling offered a promising test but that further work was required to ensure its feasibility and value in the current screening programme. Minutes of the UK NSC’s meeting can be viewed at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/uk-national-screening-committee-uk-nsc Public Heath England is now in the early stages of planning for a formal evaluation of HPV self-sampling as a primary test in the national cervical screening programme. The aim of this evaluation is to address key questions from the UK NSC external review of HPV self-sampling, published in 2017.

Patient Access to Medicines Partnership

Bambos Charalambous: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the terms of reference of the Patient Access to Medicines Partnership are; and if he will publish the (a) minutes of and (b) papers considered by that Partnership.

Helen Whately: The Patient Access to Medicines Partnership (PAMP) is a forum for strategic, high level, cross-Departmental discussions on all aspects of pharmaceutical and medicines access policy. It is constituted of a small group of senior leaders from both industry and Government. We intend to publish a summary of the PAMP discussions in due course.

Patient Access to Medicines Partnership

Bambos Charalambous: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which (a) Government Departments and (b) other bodies and organisations are members of the Patient Access to Medicines Partnership.

Helen Whately: The Patient Access to Medicines Partnership is a forum for strategic, high-level, discussions on United Kingdom pharmaceutical and medicines access policy. It is constituted of a small group of senior leaders from both industry and government. Its membership is:- Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health & Social Care (co-chair);- Senior Pharmaceutical Industry Executive (co-chair) – currently Chief Business Officer, Pfizer;- Department of Health and Social Care;- Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy;- NHS England;- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence;- Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency;- Association of British Pharmaceutical Industries;- Bio-Industry Association; and- Charity Medicines Access Coalition.

Coronavirus: Health Services

Dr Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the General Medical Council on re-licensing of retired doctors returning to practice during the covid-19 outbreak.

Edward Argar: Officials have been working closely with the General Medical Council (GMC) to ensure it has a plan in place to use its powers to support delivery of essential health and care services during an epidemic, if this is required. When registering professionals, the GMC Registrar has the power to add conditions that restrict the types of activities that a doctor can carry out. Additionally, any emergency registered retired doctors who are deployed, will be subject to oversight by local employing organisations to ensure the safe delivery of care.

Coronavirus: Health Services

Dr Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made arrangements to provide full Crown indemnity to (a) doctors and (b) nurses returning to clinical practice to assist during the covid-19 outbreak.

Edward Argar: If doctors or nurses return to the National Health Service in England for the purposes of assisting with the COVID-19 outbreak and carry out work on behalf of an NHS trust or a general practitioner (GP) practice, they would be covered for clinical negligence indemnity via one of the following state indemnity schemes: - The Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts, if they are engaged by an NHS trust to provide NHS services; and- The Clinical Negligence Scheme for General Practice, if they are engaged by a GP practice to provide NHS services (i.e. a GP practice, the main business of which is the provision of primary medical services for the NHS).

Department for International Development

CDC: ARM Cement

Zarah Sultana: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much CDC Group have invested in ARM Cement; how much of that investment has been lost or written down; and on what dates the losses and write-downs were recognised.

James Duddridge: In 2016 CDC made a $144 million equity investment into ARM Cement, a publicly listed cement business with operations in Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda. ARM Cement was an investment with high development impact potential. The aim was to support the growth of a regional manufacturer and by so doing reduce the cost and increase the availability of cement across the East African region, creating jobs and spurring infrastructure development.Due to a number of factors, CDC’s investment in ARM was ultimately not successful and the CDC investment has been written off. Write-downs were accounted for in 2016 (December); 2017 (March, June, September, December) and 2018 (June).

Palestinians: Textbooks

Jack Lopresti: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment she has made of the implications for her Department's funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency's for Palestine Refugees in the Near East of reports that Palestinian school textbooks contain content which incites violence; and if she will make a statement.

James Cleverly: The UK recognises the UN Relief and Works Agency’s (UNWRA) unique mandate to support Palestinian refugees until a lasting political settlement is reached which determines their final status. Until that time, the UK will continue to meet humanitarian need and promote regional security by supporting the 5 million Palestinian refugees across the Middle East through UNRWA. Our contribution to UNRWA last year helped provide education to more than 530,000 children (half girls), health services for over 3 million people, and social assistance for over 250,000 of the most vulnerable people.Students in all UNRWA schools are taught the curriculum of their host country. UNRWA reviews host country textbooks and when problematic material is identified, develops alternative content and provides its teachers with support to ensure that the lessons taught in its schools promote tolerance and peace. The International Development Secretary spoke to the Palestinian Minister of Education in February to emphasise this point and encourage the Palestinian Authority to remove all inappropriate material from textbooks.

Developing Countries: Climate Change

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much Official Development Assistance her Department has allocated to climate change adaptation projects in each of the last three years.

James Duddridge: The Department for International Development (DFID) spent £482 million in 2016, £371 million in 2017 and £522 million in 2018 on climate change adaptation projects as part of its share of UK international climate finance. 2019 figures are not yet available.The UK has committed to spend £5.8 billion on international climate finance from the Official Development Assistance budgets of DFID, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) over the period 2016-17 to 2020-21. DFID’s share is £3.6 billion over the same period. The UK aims to achieve a balance between projects to tackle climate change adaptation and climate change mitigation.

Department for Education

Reading

Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to (a) encourage young people to read and (b) promote reading for pleasure in (i) Eastleigh constituency, (ii) England and (iii) the UK.

Nick Gibb: The Department is committed to continuing to raise literacy standards – ensuring all children can read fluently and with understanding.Literacy skills are underpinned by communication and language skills developed in the early years. Our proposed reforms to the Early Years Foundation Stage, including revisions to the curriculum activities and assessment goals under the seven areas of learning, are intended to improve early language and literacy outcomes for all children. We have also launched Hungry Little Minds – a three-year campaign to encourage parents to engage in activities that support their child’s language and literacy. The Hungry Little Minds website gives parents access to video tips, advice and suggested apps and games to help with early learning for their children from age 0 to 5.Evidence has shown that phonics is a highly effective component in the development of early reading skills, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Our phonics performance is improving. In 2019, 82% of pupils in Year 1 met the expected standard in the phonics screening check, compared to just 58% when the check was introduced in 2012.Reflecting our commitment to encouraging early reading, in 2018 we launched the £26.3 million English Hubs Programme. We have appointed 34 primary schools across England as English Hubs. The English Hubs programme is supporting nearly 3,000 schools across England to improve their teaching of reading through systematic synthetic phonics, early language development, and reading for pleasure. The English Hubs are focused on improving educational outcomes for the most disadvantaged pupils in Reception and Year 1. To note, Springhill Catholic Primary School in Southampton is an English Hub, and covers Eastleigh and other constituencies.Education is a devolved matter and the Department is only responsible for policy in England. The Scottish and Welsh Governments are responsible for education policy in Scotland and Wales.

Schools: Uniforms

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make it his Department's policy to provide statutory guidance to governing bodies on school uniforms.

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the average cost to parents of school uniforms.

Nick Gibb: No school uniform should be so expensive as to leave pupils or their families feeling unable to apply to a school of their choice. The Government is pleased to support the Private Members' Bill to ‘Make provision for guidance about the cost aspects of school uniform policies’, which was introduced to Parliament on 5 February, in order to make guidance on the cost considerations for school uniform statutory at the earliest opportunity. This reflects the Government’s commitment to ensuring that school uniform costs are reasonable.In 2015, the Department commissioned a survey on the cost of school uniform, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cost-of-school-uniform-2015.

Braille

Mr Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of trends in the number of people with fluency in braille on the ability of (a) visually impaired and (b) blind people to communicate.

Mr Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of people that are fluent in braille.

Vicky Ford: We do not collect data on levels of braille fluency. However, we recognise the importance of children and young people with special education needs and disabilities (SEND), including those with vision impairment, receiving a world class education that sets them up for life, no matter what challenges they face.Local authorities are responsible for developing a ‘Local Offer’ of support services and provision for children and young people with SEND in their area, including those with vision impairment. This should be co-produced with children and young people and their parents and carers, to provide a genuine sense of co-ownership.The Department for Education provides local authorities with funding to enable them to fulfil their statutory duties towards children and young people with SEND, including those with vision impairment. We recently announced £780 million of additional high needs funding for the next financial year, bringing the total high needs funding to over £7 billion. Local authorities are responsible for determining how they allocate their high needs funding to support children and young people with SEND in their area.Schools also have an important role to play in supporting pupils with SEND. Every school is required to identify and address the special educational needs of their pupils. Schools also have duties under the Equality Act 2010 towards individual disabled children and young people. They must make reasonable adjustments, including the provision of auxiliary aids and services, to ensure that disabled children are not at a substantial disadvantage compared with their peers. The specific type of support provided to individual pupils will vary, depending on their needs.

Special Educational Needs

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure the adequacy of SEN funding.

Vicky Ford: No child or young person should be held back from reaching their potential, including those with complex special needs. We have announced £780 million of additional high needs funding for 2020-21 financial year. This is an increase of 12% compared to 2019-20, bringing the total amount provided to support those with the most complex needs to £7.2 billion and is the largest year-on-year increase since the high needs funding block was created in 2013.Richmond upon Thames will receive £27.6 million in high needs funding in 2020-21 which is £2.4 million more than in 2019-20.We will also invest a total of £365 million through the special provision capital fund from 2018-19 to 2020-21. This funding will help local authorities to create new places and improve facilities for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities. Funding for future years will be decided in due course as part of the Spending Review. Richmond upon Thames has been allocated a total of £2.7 million from 2018-19 to 2020-21 through the special provision capital fund.The response to cost pressures cannot just be about the amount of funding available. We have launched a review of the special educational needs and disability (SEND) system to see what further improvements are necessary to make sure every child gets the education that is right for them. This review will help us to establish a sustainable and effective SEND system in the future.We are also working with local authorities that have the largest deficits on their Dedicated schools grant (DSG), including Richmond upon Thames, to make sure that they have realistic recovery plans and that they have the support they need to implement them. The government has recently made clear that DSG deficits must be carried forward from year to year, unless local authorities obtain the Secretary of State’s agreement to pay them off from general funds. We are working with stakeholders to prepare further guidance on this subject.

Food Poverty: Academic Year

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 19 February 2020 to Question 620 on Food Poverty: Academic Year, what the combined value was of the bids received by his Department to provide free school meals during school holidays; and whether his Department received bids from organisations covering the London Borough of Harrow.

Vicky Ford: School summer holidays can be a difficult time for some families due to increased food and childcare costs and reduced incomes. We have therefore announced £9 million of funding for the 2020 summer school holidays to again support children and their families with free access to holiday clubs across the country.This follows our £9 million investment in 2019 which explored a model of local coordination of free holiday provision in 11 local authority areas.We held a competitive bidding round for the summer 2020 fund which closed on 13 December. All bids will be assessed against our published criteria and applicants needed to demonstrate that they could coordinate high-quality holiday clubs for children across their areas.The combined value of the bids received by the department in 2020 is £41,397,841.78 and no bids were received covering the London Borough of Harrow.Successful bids will be announced in due course.

Children: Day Care

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people have had their 30 hours free childcare funding suspended as a result of technical issues using the Government gateway system in 2020.

Vicky Ford: HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) do not hold the data requested nor can it be derived from data that the Department for Education (DfE) holds. HMRC can provide information on Government Gateway outages and downtime, however we cannot link them to parents failing to get a 30 hours code. Government Gateway issues can occur at any time, but they are usually short lived. Customers are advised to try again later. If parents continue to have problems, they can call the Childcare Service Helpline and we can help them.The grace period enables parents to retain their childcare place for a short period if they become ineligible for 30 hours. Parents who fall out of eligibility in the first half of a term are able to retain their childcare place until the end of that term; parents who fall out of eligibility in the second half of a term are able to retain their childcare place until the end of the following term. Their ‘grace period end date’ is the last date on which they should receive their 30 hours place after falling out of eligibility and is generated by the DfE’s Eligibility Checking System. Childcare providers and local authorities can see this date when they check a code.

Engineering: Apprentices

Antony Higginbotham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking with representatives of private sector companies to increase the number of apprenticeships in the engineering sector.

Gillian Keegan: We have introduced a wide range of reforms to apprenticeships to improve their quality and encourage employers across England, include those in the engineering sector, to increase the number of apprenticeships they offer.In 2018-19, there were almost 60,000 starts in the engineering and manufacturing technologies sector. There are currently 122 high-quality industry-designed apprenticeship standards available in the engineering sector, including engineering and manufacturing technician and rail and rail systems engineer, with a further 24 standards in development.We continue to work closely with employers and industry sector bodies, including the Institute for Engineering and Technology, MAKE UK and the Royal Aeronautical Society, to help them make the most of the long-term benefits of apprenticeships.This support ranges from direct engagement with key employers to support growth in apprenticeships, helping to promote apprenticeships on employers’ websites and social media, and running sector-specific apprenticeship events. We also provide guidance for small employers who do not pay the levy to transition onto the apprenticeship service, through webinars, workshops and face to face meetings.Our Intermediary Ambassador Network, which currently has 60 members, includes representation from the engineering and manufacturing sector. We are supporting these ambassadors to effectively promote apprenticeships in their sectors.

Literacy

Scott Benton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to encourage people to take part in adult literacy programmes in (a) Blackpool and (b) England.

Gillian Keegan: The adult education budget (AEB) fully funds or co-funds skills provision for eligible adults aged 19 years and above from pre-entry to level 3, to support adults to gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship or further learning. This includes fully funded courses in English and maths, for adults aged 19 years and above who need to improve their literacy and numeracy, and fully funded first full level 2 or level 3, or both, for learners aged 19 to 23 years.From the 2019/20 academic year, approximately 50% of the AEB has been devolved to six mayoral combined authorities (MCAs) and the Mayor of London, acting where appropriate through the Greater London Authority (GLA). These authorities are now responsible for the provision of AEB-funded adult education for their residents and allocation of the AEB to providers. The Education and Skills Funding Agency will continue to be responsible for the remaining AEB in non-devolved areas, including Blackpool.

Ministry of Justice

Coroners

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps the Chief Coroner has taken to ensure that  coronial decision-making is consistent throughout the UK.

Alex Chalk: The Chief Coroner provides judicial leadership to coroners on a range of statutory and non-statutory matters. In doing so, he publishes guidance and advice to promote consistency of practice and service across England and Wales which is available at https://www.judiciary.uk/related-offices-and-bodies/office-chief-coroner/guidance-law-sheets/coroners-guidance/. This guidance, including the Bench Book for coroners, is in the process of being reviewed. The Chief Coroner also provides training to all coroners and coroners' officers via the Judicial College, further promoting consistency and ensuring that coroners follow the most recent standards of practice. These are also supported by the Chief Coroner’s monitoring duties. In particular, he registers cases lasting more than 12 months, as required by the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, allowing him to keep any delays under review. In addition, the Chief Coroner has a statutory duty to provide an annual report to the Lord Chancellor which, among other matters, must include an assessment for the year of the consistency of standards between coroner areas.

Prison Officers: Pay

Mary Glindon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Prison Service Pay Review Body Summary of England and Wales Visits 2019, published in February 2020, what steps he is taking to address the finding in that report that the Band 3 prison officer pay scale was not a wage staff could live on or afford a mortgage with.

Mary Glindon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Prison Service Pay Review Body Summary of England and Wales Visits 2019, published in February 2020, what steps he is taking to address the finding in that report that Operational Support Grade staff reported that they could earn more working in factories and supermarkets.

Mary Glindon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Prison Service Pay Review Body Summary of England and Wales Visits 2019, published in February 2020, what steps he is taking to address the finding in that report that Band 3 prison officers were reported to be leaving the service for a whole host of different types of employment, some of which had much lower levels of violence.

Mary Glindon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Prison Service Pay Review Body Summary of England and Wales Visits 2019, published in February 2020, what steps he is taking to address the finding in that report that there was an overall picture of low morale with a feeling that the HM Prison and Probation Service did not value its staff.

Mary Glindon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Prison Service Pay Review Body Summary of England and Wales Visits 2019, published in February 2020, what steps he is taking to address the finding in that report that some prisons were struggling with the roll out of the Key Worker scheme due to staffing levels,  and a high non-effective rate, which had delayed the associated roll-out of the use of PAVA spray in prisons.

Lucy Frazer: We are giving staff the tools they need to do the job safely – rolling out PAVA incapacitant spray, and investing £100 million, as part of a wider £2.75 billion package, to fund tough airport-style security that will clamp down on the illicit items which fuel violence and hinder rehabilitation.The Ministry of Justice is actively engaged with the Prison Service Pay Review Body in support of their evidence gathering process and we look forward to receiving their considered recommendations later this year. To maintain the integrity of this independent process we will not be commenting on any material that will not be formally published. The document referred to is not a published document.

Robin Tolson

Louise Haigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many complaints the Judicial Appointments and Conduct Ombudsman has received in relation to the conduct of Judge Robin Tolson QC.

Louise Haigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when the Judicial Appointments and Conduct Ombudsman plans to respond to complaints in relation to Judge Robin Tolson QC.

Chris Philp: The Judicial Appointments and Conduct Ombudsman (JACO) does not consider complaints about Judicial Office Holders. The JACO cannot comment on whether a Judicial Office Holder’s actions amount to misconduct or comment on matters before the courts or tribunals.The JACO’s judicial conduct remit is to investigate the handling of complaints by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) (and bodies with a similar remit in respect of concerns about the actions of Tribunal members and Magistrates) under the Judicial Conduct arrangements. The JCIO’s statutory remit is to deal with complaints of misconduct.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

UK Shared Prosperity Fund

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress he has made on developing the UK Shared Prosperity Fund; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Simon Clarke: The 2019 Conservative Manifesto committed to creating a UK Shared Prosperity Fund which binds together the whole of the United Kingdom, tackling inequality and deprivation in each of our four nations.The Government recognises the importance of reassuring local areas on the future of local growth funding and of providing clarity on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. Government officials have been working closely with interested parties and will continue to do so as we develop the fund.

Thames Estuary 2050 Growth Commission

Jackie Doyle-Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the purpose is of the Thames Estuary (a) Growth Commission, (b) Growth Award and (c) Envoy; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Simon Clarke: The Government is committed to giving all towns, cities and communities across the UK, including those in Thurrock and the wider Thames Estuary, real power and investment to drive the future growth and unleash their full potential. The Thames Estuary is a major opportunity area with the potential to support growth right across the country.When the Thames Estuary 2050 Growth Commission was announced at Budget 2016, it was tasked with developing a vision and delivery plan for the Thames Estuary up to 2050. The Thames Estuary Growth Commission was made up of independent experts, and under the leadership of Sir John Armitt, the Commission have reported their ambitious vision and delivery plan for north Kent, south Essex and east London up to 2050. With their purpose fulfilled, the Commission has now disbanded.Government responded to the Thames Estuary Growth Commission in March 2018, awarding £1 million to support the establishment and operation of the Thames Estuary Growth Board.The Growth Board's purpose is to help stimulate growth in the economy across the Estuary. The Growth Board is made up of local authorities and private sector members and is seeking to represent the diversity of the communities it serves.On 30 October 2019, Kate Willard was appointed as the first Estuary Envoy and the Chair of the new Growth Board. The Envoy is working to convene partners across the area and is a ‘single voice’ for the Thames Estuary to advocate for the area at a national and international level.

Sub-letting: Social Rented Housing

Theresa Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to tackle fraudulent sub-letting of social housing.

Christopher Pincher: The Government supported and implemented the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act 2013 which makes it a criminal offence to unlawfully sublet social housing. It also allows the court to award the social landlord the profit the tenant has made from their unlawful sub-letting, regardless of whether the landlord has incurred a loss.Between 2011 and 2015 the Department provided £19 million to local authorities to help them tackle tenancy fraud; and supported a team within the Chartered Institute of Housing to provide advice and support to all social landlords.

Social Rented Housing: Waiting Lists

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to reduce social housing waiting lists.

Christopher Pincher: The social housing waiting list in England has decreased by 37 per cent since 2012.  Local authorities have freedom to set their own criteria determining who qualifies for social housing in their district, through changes introduced in the Localism Act 2011, and how this is delivered. However, they must ensure that reasonable preference (overall priority) for social housing is given to certain categories of people in housing need, including homeless households, people living in overcrowded housing, and those who have medical and welfare needs.The Government is committed to increasing the supply of social housing and has made £9 billion available through the Affordable Homes Programme to March 2022. Since 2010, we have delivered over 464,500 new affordable homes, including over 331,800 affordable homes for rent.Building on this, we announced at Budget 2020 that we are investing £12 billion to build affordable homes between 2021/22 - 2025/26. This will be the biggest cash investment in affordable housing for a decade.

English Language: Education

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Integrated Communities Action Plan published by his Department on 9 February 2019, what progress has been made on (a) the actions set out in the section entitled Boosting English language and (b) increasing the provision of ESOL classes with a creche.

Luke Hall: Holding answer received on 11 March 2020



The Department introduced the Integrated Communities English Language Programme in 2019/20, which delivers highly localised community based English language provision in community buildings including schools, community centres and places of worship. By the end of the programme we anticipate it will have provided English language learning to over 19,000 people. Building on the success of this programme, our new £6.5 million ESOL for Integration Fund 2020/21 was announced on 6 March.In addition, MHCLG have developed partnerships with 8 local authorities to improve the coordination of ESOL provision within their areas. DfE have also created a set of teaching resources for ESOL learners with limited literacy skills.All families in England with children aged 3 and 4 are eligible for 15 hours a week of free early education. Eligible working families are also entitled to an additional 15 hours free childcare.

Fracking and Wind Power: Finance

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much funding has been allocated to support (a) planning development and (b) processing of applications by local authorities for (i) fracking and (ii) onshore wind sites in each of the last five years.

Christopher Pincher: Between March 2015 and February 2020, the Government’s Shale Support Fund, for the purpose of building capacity and capability in mineral planning authorities to deal with shale gas applications, made the following payments to mineral planning authorities: £46,173 (2015); £365,000 (2016); £123,947.42 (2017); £252,858 (2018) and £193,000 (2019). The final year of the Fund closed in February 2020.The Department has not provided funding in relation to planning support for onshore wind applications in this time period.

Ministry of Defence

Type 23 Frigates: Guided Weapons

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the cost was of attaching Sea Ceptor to the Type 23 Frigates.

Jeremy Quin: Installation and full integration of the Sea Ceptor missile system onto Type 23 Frigates draws upon different complex contractual arrangements and complete cost information specifically related to the attachment of Sea Ceptor (which would have been conducted alongside other tasks) is not centrally held and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Nuclear Weapons: USA

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his Statement of 25 February 2020, Nuclear Update HCWS125, what steps he plans to take to ensure that close work with the US on new warhead development is compatible with UK obligations under article 1 of the 1970 Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty not to transfer nuclear warheads or other nuclear explosive devices to any recipient whatsoever, directly or indirectly; and what recent estimate he has made of the (a) cost and (b) completion date of the proposed Trident warhead replacement programme.

Jeremy Quin: As the Secretary of State for Defence stated in his Statement of 25 February 2020, Nuclear Deterrent (HCWS125) the Defence Nuclear Organisation and Atomic Weapons Establishment will deliver the UK's replacement warhead and we will continue to work closely with the US to ensure it remains compatible with the Trident strategic weapon system. This is consistent with our approach to our current warhead and we will continue to be fully compliant with our obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.As we have previously stated, the replacement warhead is not required until at least the late 2030s, and the programme to deliver it will be subject to the Government's major programme approvals and oversight. We are withholding specific information about cost and in-service dates for the purposes of safeguarding national security.

Department for Work and Pensions

Social Security Benefits: Coronavirus

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the process will be for self-employed people to claim contributory employment and support allowance in the event that they have to self-isolate as a result of Covid-19; whether those people will be exempt from the face-to-face work capability assessment interview required to begin payments; and if she will make a statement.

Justin Tomlinson: As part of the Government’s strategy to support people affected by the Covid-19 public health emergency, DWP is making a number of temporary changes to its benefit processes (and legislation) to ensure people who need financial help have access to the benefit system when they need it.To avoid increasing the burden on health care professionals and the risk of further infection, we are removing the requirement for fit notes in relation to both Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Universal Credit (UC) claims relating to Covid-19 only.Everyone that claims who is infected with Covid-19 or who is required to self-isolate will be treated as having Limited Capability for Work in ESA and UC without the requirement for medical evidence or undergoing a Work Capability Assessment.In addition to better support the needs of people (particularly the self-employed and those not eligible for SSP) and/or not entitled to Universal Credit (UC) we are removing the seven waiting days that currently apply to ESA.This means that everyone who makes a new claim for ESA; is entitled to the benefit and is infected with Covid-19 or required to self-isolate will be paid from day one of their claim.Staff are ready to support people who need to self-isolate.

State Retirement Pensions

Paul Maynard: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many pensioners over the age of 80 are in receipt of the state pension.

Guy Opperman: In August 2019, the latest date for which data are available, there were 3,572,109 persons aged 80 years and above in receipt of State Pension.

Social Security Benefits

Paul Maynard: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her policy is on maintaining benefit payments in cash form to claimants.

Guy Opperman: The Departments payment policy does not include cash payments. This policy outlines that the standard method of payment is into a bank, building society, credit union account, internet based and basic bank account. There are also two payment exception services (Post Office card account and HMG PES) that enable individuals who cannot manage a standard bank account, access to their money from various outlets. When the contracts for these services end, a replacement service will be introduced. We are committed to ensuring that those who need cash payments will be able to access them in their local area and that an over the counter face to face service will remain available.

Social Security Benefits

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she will take to ensure that claimants in receipt of personal independence payment (PIP) automatically receive the accompanying rates of employment and support allowance or the limited capability for work component of universal credit, including associated premiums, that fully reflect their PIP entitlement.

Justin Tomlinson: Those in receipt of Personal Independence Payment may be entitled to additional premiums as part of their income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). Whilst our ambition is to provide automated solutions to facilitate the payment of these there will always be occasions – whether because of the relative costs and benefits of a particular approach or the complexity or lifespan of the product – where this is not possible and human intervention is required. To support our people to deliver a high quality service we are undertaking regular scans of our ESA caseload to identify and eliminate error; prioritising payment related processing across sites; re-organising the delivery of our services to maximise capability and capacity and digital transformation to support delivery.

Child Maintenance Service: Income

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what income the Child Maintenance Service has received from (a) bank interest and (b) other investments made as a result of payments held by that organisation in each of the last three years.

Mims Davies: No income has been received from bank interest or other investments by the Child Maintenance Service over the last three years.

Children: Maintenance

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average length of time was that payments from parents were held by the Child Maintenance Service before being paid to the receiving parent, in each of the last three years.

Mims Davies: This information is not held. The Department does not hold the payments for longer than is required for the payment to clear and the funds to be administered to the receiving parent. Where a payment has a correct reference number applied and is paid into the correct bank account it will allocate automatically and pay out once the payment has cleared, so long as the RP has provided bank details. The only delays that may occur are when a receipt does not allocate to a case automatically. This could be because: (i) a customer fails to quote a correct reference number, which results in a payment falling into a suspense account requiring investigation. Once the intended RP is traced, and funds have cleared, the payment will be transferred to the RP account. (ii) a paying parent makes a payment when no maintenance is outstanding, in which case the payment will allocate to a RP account and pay out once the next payment falls due. (iii) Receipts arrive as part of a bulk schedule of payments, which may need some manual intervention to ensure payments are allocated to the individual customer, for example Employer or Bailiff receipts.

Child Maintenance Service: Income

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much was received by the Child Maintenance Service in charges for (a) collection and (b) payment services in each of the last three years.

Mims Davies: The amounts charged for the last three years of audited accounts are set out in the table below.2016/17 £m2017/18 £m2018/19 £mReceiving Parent Charges 4%2.0263.2415.430Paying Parent Charges 20%10.49416.87827.905

Social Security Benefits: Muscular Dystrophy

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department has taken help claimants with muscular dystrophy complete forms for (a) personal independence payment, (b) universal credit and (c) employment support allowance.

Justin Tomlinson: PIP claims are assessed on the basis of functional need rather than health condition.UC and ESA do not categorise referrals for a Work Capability Assessment by condition. Information on how a health condition affects their ability to perform everyday tasks is gathered by asking claimants to complete UC50/ESA50 (Limited Capability for Work Questionnaire). In PIP, UC and ESA there are no specific claims processes designed for individual health conditions such as muscular dystrophy however the Department takes seriously the need to support vulnerable claimants with form completion as follows:  a) For PIPAs part of the PIP New Claims processes all customers, including those with muscular dystrophy, are asked if they have the support they need to make their claim and complete the application process. Claimants are offered additional support where appropriate and this is noted on their records to ensure they continue to receive the support they need throughout the PIP process. b) For UCIf a claimant needs help with the completion of the UC50 there is help available from the Health Assessment Advisory Service.We want the application process for Universal Credit to be as quick and easy as possible to ensure that claimants receive their money at the earliest opportunity. Comprehensive support is available to claimants to use our digital service, however we recognise there will be occasions when people are unable to make or maintain their claim online, so telephone support is available.Universal Credit has been designed with a diverse range of claimants in mind and in these instances where digital access is not possible, information normally available through a claimant’s online account will be communicated in an alternative format, which is best suited to an individual’s circumstances. The initial verification can include a home visit to support a claimant with making their claim and completing any other administrative tasks required to ensure that they receive the correct payment.Citizens Advice and Citizens Advice Scotland have supported over 200,000 individuals through ‘Help to Claim’ since April 2019, offering tailored and practical support to help people make a Universal Credit claim up to receiving their first full correct payment on time. ‘Help to Claim’ is available online, on the phone and face-to-face in locations including Jobcentres and Citizen’s Advice Bureaux. c) For ESAFor new claims to ESA, assistance with form completion takes place over the telephone. For New Style ESA claims, Visiting Officer support is available to help complete claim forms if this cannot be done through support from family, friends and 3rd parties or via support from a Work Coach in the Jobcentre.If a claimant needs help with the completion of the ESA50 there is help available from the Health Assessment Advisory Service - if the claimant is deemed vulnerable we can consider requesting support by means of a DWP Visiting Officer.

Social Security Benefits: Muscular Dystrophy

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what training on the fluctuating conditions of muscular dystrophy is provided to assessors of (a) personal independence payment, (b) universal credit and (c) employment support allowance.

Justin Tomlinson: All health professionals carrying out assessments are clinically qualified and registered practitioners in their own field. DWP requires health professionals to have a broad training in disability analysis as well as awareness training in specific conditions, which includes Muscular Dystrophy. While preparing to undertake an assessment, health professionals have access to a range of resources as well as experienced clinicians to support them in assessing individuals with conditions that they may not be familiar with. Additionally, assessment providers engage with medical experts, charities and relevant stakeholders to strengthen their training programmes.

Personal Independence Payment: Terminal Illnesses

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claims for personal independence payment were (a) made, (b) refused and (c) granted for terminal illness payments using the DS1500 form in each month from January 2018 to December 2019; and if she will make a statement.

Justin Tomlinson: The information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost. The DS1500 is not a claim form in itself and is not a requirement to support a claim for Personal Independence Payment under the special rules for terminal illness. The DS1500 can be completed by a terminally ill patient’s doctor or other healthcare professional and returned to DWP. The doctor or healthcare professional provides information about their patient’s condition, including its clinical features and ongoing or planned treatment on the DS1500.

Universal Credit: Terminal Illnesses

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claims for universal credit were (a) made, (b) refused and (c) granted for terminal illness payments using the DS1500 form in each month from January 2018 to December 2019; and if she will make a statement.

Justin Tomlinson: The information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Social Security Benefits: Terminal Illnesses

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 3 March 2020 to Questions 21930, 219331, 219332 and 21933, for what reasons the information requested is not readily available.

Justin Tomlinson: A DS1500 can be completed during the claim process for various benefits: Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), Universal Credit (UC), Attendance Allowance (AA) and Disability Living Allowance (DLA). We do not record receipt of the DS1500 centrally for all benefits. Whilst the Department does collect some information on DS1500 forms providing the requested data would necessitate complex data matching; and the extraction of the data requested would require significant time applying specialist knowledge and a high level of skill. This task, in addition to assessing the completeness of recording on DS1500 forms, and quality assuring the figures would therefore take in excess of four working days and exceed the appropriate cost limit for central Government.

Universal Credit: Disability

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the effect of the roll-out of universal credit on the level of income of disabled people.

Justin Tomlinson: I refer the Rt.Hon Member to the answer I gave on 3rd March 2020 to Question UIN 20604

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Coal: Heating

Jackie Doyle-Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential effect the proposed ban on burning coal in domestic settings on fuel poverty.

Rebecca Pow: As stated in the Government Response published on 21 February, we want to see a move from bituminous coal to less polluting fuels in the domestic setting. We will facilitate this transition by only allowing the sale of smokeless coal (or anthracite) and low sulphur manufactured solid fuels for the purpose of domestic combustion.

Livestock: Markets

Michael Fabricant: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with his international counterparts on the potential merits of legislation overseas to close wet animal markets and butcheries; and if he will make a statement.

Victoria Prentis: The UK is at the forefront of international efforts to protect the interests of animals throughout the world. The Government, through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, also raises concerns about the health and welfare of animals with other governments and international authorities at every suitable opportunity.

Electronic Training Aids: Animal Welfare

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the effect of (a) shock collars and (b) other aversive training devices on animals' long-term health and wellbeing; and if he will make a statement.

Victoria Prentis: The Government remains committed to banning the use of remote controlled hand-held electronic training collars (e-collars) for dogs and cats in England. This is based on Defra funded research carried out between 2007 and 2010 which showed that e-collars compromise the welfare of some dogs. Anyone causing unnecessary suffering to a dog through the misuse or otherwise of a training device would be in breach of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 and subject to a maximum penalty of six months imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine. The Government is committed to increasing the maximum custodial penalty for this offence to five years.

Home Office

Immigrants: Croydon

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of children whose parents have no recourse to public funds that live in (a) Croydon North constituency and (b) the London Borough of Croydon.

Chris Philp: The Home Office does not hold the data requested and information on the UK’s resident population is a matter for the independent Office for National Statistics. The no recourse to public funds (NRPF) condition is applied to the leave of most migrants in the UK as a legitimate means of maintaining and protecting our economic resources.In those cases where leave has been, or is being, granted for family or private life reasons the NRPF condition can be lifted on application to the Home Office, including for reasons involving the welfare needs of children. In addition, immigration legislation specifically provides for assessments of child welfare needs to take place and support to be provided by a local authority under section 17 of the Children Act 1989.

Offences against Children: Internet

Alex Norris: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the prevalence of online live-streaming of the sexual exploitation of children that originates from (a) the UK and (b) other countries.

Victoria Atkins: The Government set out in the Serious Organised Crime Strategy 2018 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/serious-and-organised-crime-strategy-2018 that companies must be at the forefront of efforts to deny offenders access to children and child sexual abuse material via their platforms and services, and that a priority area is to stop the live streaming of child sexual abuse.The National Crime Agency’s National Strategic Assessment 2018  https://nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/who-we-are/publications/173-national-strategic-assessment-of-serious-and-organised-crime-2018/filedescribed self-broadcast live-streaming as a growing concern, with 1 in 8 teens having broadcast on Instagram and 1 in 10 on Facebook. Children were then being coerced and extorted into streaming child abuse content. Such images can be harvested and redistributed leading to blackmail and extortion for further images. The NCA has assessed in the National Strategic Assessment 2019 https://nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/who-we-are/publications/296-national-strategic-assessment-of-serious-organised-crime-2019/file that livestreaming is a key threat, with some UK offenders paying overseas facilitators to abuse children.The 2019 WePROTECT Global Alliance global threat assessment global threat assessment http://www2.paconsulting.com/rs/526-HZE-833/images/WePROTECT%202019%20Global%20Threat%20Assessment%20%28FINAL%29.pdf on demonstrates the nature, scale and complexity of online child sexual exploitation and abuse. The assessment outlined that technology increasingly enables the live streaming of child sexual abuse material.

Asylum: Children

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her Department's policy is on family reunion for unaccompanied asylum seeking children.

Chris Philp: The Government remains resolutely committed to the principle of family reunion.The UK will cease to participate in EU instruments at the end of the Transition Period, including the Dublin Regulation. This means that the ability of unaccompanied children to use Dublin to reunite with family will end, unless a replacement agreement is negotiated. The Government has been clear that it is committed to seeking such an agreement with the EU, thereby ensuring these children can continue to reunite with family at the end of the Transition Period. The Home Secretary wrote to the European Commission on 22 October to begin negotiations.The UK will continue to be bound by the Dublin Regulation provisions during the Transition Period, allowing us to continue to transfer family reunion cases to the UK throughout 2020, and we will continue to process all family reunion requests that have been submitted but not completed under Dublin before the end of the Transition Period.

National Wildlife Crime Unit: Finance

Mrs Andrea Jenkyns: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will allocate long-term funding to the National Wildlife Crime Unit.

Kit Malthouse: The Home Office will be providing specific funding of £136,000 to support the work of the National Wildlife Crime Unit in 2020/21. This will be in addition to specific funding for the Unit provided by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the funding central Government will be providing police forces in England and Wales to tackle all types of crime, including wildlife crime.Decisions about Home Office funding for the National Wildlife Crime Unit beyond March 2021 will be taken as part of the forthcoming Spending Review.

Hate Crime

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the College of Policing’s operational guidance for investigating and recording allegations of non-crime hate incidents.

Kit Malthouse: The College of Policing is independent from Government and its role is clear: setting high professional standards; sharing what works best; acting as the national voice of policing; and ensuring police training and ethics is of the highest possible quality.The College of Policing has recently consulted on revised operational guidance on hate crime, which the College plans to publish in due course to support forces dealing with hate crimes and hate incidents.

Immigration: Northern Ireland

Stephen Farry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to paragraphs 13-15 of Annex A of the document entitled New Decade, New Approach, published in January 2020, what the timeframe is for bringing forward legislative proposals on family migration arrangements for people in Northern Ireland.

Stephen Farry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to paragraphs 13-15 of Annex A of the document entitled New Decade, New Approach, published in January 2020, whether people in Northern Ireland will be able to permanently access rights to family reunification that are broadly equivalent to those available to Irish citizens in the UK under EEA Regulations.

Stephen Farry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effect of Article 1 (vi) of the Good Friday Agreement on (a) the legal status of people in Northern Ireland who identify as (i) Irish, (ii) British and (iii) both and (b) their related entitlement to be recognised as such.

Kevin Foster: Article 1 (vi) of the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement sets out the birthright of all the people of Northern Ireland to identify themselves and be accepted as Irish or British as they may so choose, and confirms their right to hold both British and Irish citizenship. In line with this commitment, the people of Northern Ireland are legally able to hold British or Irish citizenship, or both.The reciprocal Common Travel Area arrangements between the UK and Ireland ensure the people of Northern Ireland are not required to choose and assert an identity, or to align their citizenship with their choice of identity, in order to access public services and other entitlements in the UK.As set out in the New Decade, New Approach document published in January 2020, the Home Office intends to change the UK’s Immigration Rules so family members of the people of Northern Ireland can apply for immigration status on broadly the same terms as family members of Irish citizens and will open this route as soon as delivery allows. We aim to do this before the end of the year.The Rules change will enable the people of Northern Ireland to bring their family members to the UK on broadly the same basis as family members of Irish citizens who have entry and residence rights under the EU Withdrawal Agreement.Where family members of Irish citizens are not covered by the Withdrawal Agreement (for example, because the Irish citizen moved to the UK after the end of the transition period) they will, as now, be able to apply for immigration status under the UK’s family Immigration Rules. Family members of the people of Northern Ireland in an analogous position will also be subject to those Rules.

British National (Overseas): Hong Kong

Steve Double: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many British National Overseas passport holders there were in Hong Kong in each year since the introduction of that category of passport; whether she plans to review the rights afforded to those passport holders; and if she will make a statement.

Kevin Foster: We are unable to provide data on the volume of British National (Overseas) passports in circulation (valid) prior to 31 December 2015 as the data could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.We do not hold data on the number of British National Overseas passport holder’s resident in Hong Kong. The table below contains information on the number of British National (Overseas) passports in circulation from 2015 to 2019. YearNationality DescriptionNumber of passports (Volume)31 December 2015British National (Overseas)143,21931 December 2016British National (Overseas)152,35131 December 2017British National (Overseas)158,10731 December 2018British National (Overseas)169,65331 December 2019British National (Overseas)314,779BN(O) status is part of the delicate balance in negotiations that led to the Sino-British Joint Declaration. We believe it would not be right to change the legal status of BN(O)s at this point in time.

Visas: Fees and Charges

Nadia Whittome: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will publish the (a) amount accrued to the public purse from (i) fees and (ii) charges applied by the UK Visa Application Centre; and (b) date on which each category of (A) fees and (B) charges were introduced.

Kevin Foster: All visa and migration fees are paid directly by the applicant to the Home Office and not routed through UKVCAS. The amounts collected are published in the Home Office accounts. The amounts collected for 2018-19 are shown here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/807126/6.5571_HO_Annual_Report_201920_WEB.PDF at page 137.The fees levels approved by Parliament are published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visa-fees-transparency-dataHowever, customers using UKVCAS may elect to pay for additional premium services over and above the visa/migration fee. These premium charges are retained by the commercial operator of UKVCAS. Details of the additional, optional services can be found here at: http://www.ukvcas.co.uk/additional-services.Information on the UKVCAS contract is published here: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/ec5031ea-021e-471a-86cf-af540e8d8efa?p=@xUlRRPT0=NjJNT08=UFQ. However, the commencement of service and premium charge price change dates are not disclosed separately.

Flakka

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to prevent the (a) sale and (b) use of the drug flakka.

Kit Malthouse: “Flakka” is a street name for some cathinones. Cathinones and related compounds are controlled under Class B of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and it is an offence to possess, supply or produce them.Tough enforcement is a fundamental part of our approach to tackling drugs and we are working across Government to address the drivers behind drug-related crime and help prevent further substance misuse and offending.The UK Drugs Summit took place on 27 February. The Summit brought together all four nations of the United Kingdom to consider the challenges we are facing and to reflect on what more can be done to address drug supply and reduce drug harms. The Prime Minister has also established a Cabinet committee on crime which will help to drive cross-Government action in this area.The Government is taking action to reduce demand for drugs, and to build recovery and treatment to tackle harmful substances such as these. We are investing in evidence-based programmes to prevent young people using drugs, for example, we support Rise Above, an online resilience building resource aimed at 11 to 16-year-olds, and FRANK, the national drugs information and advice service.

Organised Crime: Rural Areas

Alicia Kearns: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of prioritising police resources on tackling organised crime in rural areas.

Kit Malthouse: It is the responsibility of Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables to ensure that the police priorities reflect those of their communities and that resources are deployed accordingly.

Migrant Workers: Service Industries

Sir Roger Gale: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the additional costs to be borne by the (a) catering and (b) hospitality industries as a result of the Government's proposals to limit low-skilled workers from (i) the EU and (ii) overseas.

Sir Roger Gale: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure an adequate supply of labour for the (i) catering and (ii) hospitality industries after the introduction of controls on low-skilled workers from the (A) EU and (B) overseas.

Kevin Foster: This Government will reduce lower skilled migration. Free movement is ending, and we will not simply replicate it in a future system.We need to shift the focus of our economy away from a reliance on cheap labour from Europe and immigration must also be considered alongside investment in technology, innovation, automation and the development of the UK’s domestic labour force.Employers need to focus on investing in the people already here and make jobs more attractive for UK workers.Businesses can continue to be able to rely on those EU/EEA nationals living in the UK with settled or pre-settled status and those who come to the UK through youth mobility schemes.We are also committed to quadrupling the Seasonal Workers scheme for agriculture for non EEA nationals from 2,500 to 10,000 places.As the future system is developed we will continue to engage with stakeholders form a range of industries and take advice from the independent Migration Advisory Committee.

Immigration: EU Nationals

Mohammad Yasin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether EU citizens that are awarded pre-settled status will have the same entitlement to benefits after the transition period as they do now.

Kevin Foster: EU citizens and their family members who have obtained pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme will continue to access benefits on the same basis and according to the same rules as they do now.This means EU citizens will still need to demonstrate they are exercising a qualifying right to reside, for example as a worker, in order to access taxpayer funded benefits, such as Universal Credit. This will continue until their pre-settled status expires or until they are granted settled status.

Police: Degrees

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of police officers have a degree.

Kit Malthouse: The Home Office does not hold the information requested.The Home Office collects and publishes information on the police workforce on a biannual basis, however, information on officers’ qualifications are not collected. The latest statistical releases are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales

Places of Worship Security Funding Scheme

Claudia Webbe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what funding is available to support security and safety in and around mosques; and if she will make a statement.

Claudia Webbe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much funding she has allocated to public safety in and around mosques in the most recent 12 month period for which figures are available; and if she will make a statement.

Claudia Webbe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans her Department has to increase funding for security in and around mosques in response to the Hanau terrorist attack on 19 February 2020.

Victoria Atkins: In addition to the 134 grants already provided over the first three years of the Places of Worship scheme, the Government have announced a further commitment of £1.6m funding for the Places of Worship Scheme this financial year and are further doubling the available funding in 2020-21. We will shortly be announcing the outcome of the fourth year of the scheme, which will see over fifty organisations receive funding to enhance the security of their premises.The police regularly review events and potential threats to ensure everything is being done to protect all our communities from terrorism, hate crime and the impact of public protest. The Government also has an established programme that provides those responsible for crowded places with high quality advice and guidance, to enable them to understand the terrorist threat; prepare for all types of terrorist attacks; and ensure appropriate measures may be taken to reduce their vulnerability.

Migrant Workers: Small Businesses

Caroline Nokes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the time it will take for SMEs to register as Tier 2 employers under the new immigration system.

Caroline Nokes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the time it will take for (a) a veterinary practice and (b) other SME registered with her Department to employ under the new immigration system a (i) vet and (ii) other employee from overseas to fill a vacancy that cannot be filled by settled workers.

Kevin Foster: Under the current immigration system, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are already able to apply as Tier 2 employers and sponsor highly-skilled migrant workers.On the 19 February, the Government published a policy statement on the UK’s Points-Based Immigration System, for introduction from January 2021. For employers sponsoring skilled migrants, the visa process will be streamlined to reduce the time it takes to bring in a skilled migrant worker by up to eight weeks and we will abolish the Resident Labour Market Test.A programme of engagement will begin this month to raise awareness of the new system, focusing upon those sectors most impacted, including SMEs.

Immigration: EU Nationals

Stephen Farry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications to the EU settlement scheme from people in Northern Ireland have been (a) received, (b) accepted and (c) rejected.

Kevin Foster: The latest published figures show that the total number of applications received up to 31 January 2020 was more than 3.1 million (3,107,900), of which 50,500 were from Northern Ireland.Published information on EUSS applications and concluded applications by the applicants location in the United Kingdom (up to 31 December 2019), can be found in the Home Office’s ‘EU Settlement Scheme quarterly statistics’, statistics tables, tables EUSS_01 and EUSS_03_NIR respectively, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/eu-settlement-scheme-quarterly-statistics-december-2019.As at 31 December 2019 a total of 2.8 million (2,756,130) applications had been received and 2.5 million (2,450,220) applications had been concluded, of which 44,860 were from Northern Ireland. Of the 44,860 applications from Northern Ireland, 38,630 had been concluded, within which 25,830 (67%) were granted settled status and 12,620 (33%) were granted pre-settled status, 130 were withdrawn or void and 50 found to be invalid.

Immigration Controls

Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of potential effect of the proposed immigration rules on the security industry.

Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the security sector on the potential effect on that sector of the proposed changes to the immigration rules.

Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of (a) the potential effect on the security sector of the proposed new immigration rules, and (b) the implications of that effect for (i) the police and (ii) other public agencies.

Kevin Foster: The Government published “The UK’s Points-Based System: Policy Statement” on 19 February.We are ending free movement and will bring in a firm and fair points-based system that will attract the high skilled workers we need to contribute to our economy, our communities and our public services. Businesses will have to make some adjustments and focus on upskilling the resident UK labour force and investing in new technology.Many businesses, like the security industry, will also be able to continue to rely on EU nationals living in the UK with settled or pre-settled status.We recognise these proposals represent significant change for some employers in the UK. We will deliver a comprehensive programme of communication and engagement in the coming months.In delivering on its manifesto commitments for a new points-based system, the Government has considered relevant views, evidence, and analysis. We will also keep labour market data under careful scrutiny and continue to engage with stakeholders.

Shavendra Silva

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to take similar steps to the US State Department and bar Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, the head of Sri Lanka’s Army, from entry to the UK.

Chris Philp: The Home Office does not comment on individual cases.The Home Secretary can exclude a non-European Economic Area national where it is conducive to the public good. The Immigration Rules also provide for the refusal of entry clearance or leave to enter at the border if a person’s character, conduct or associations mean it is undesirable to grant them entry to the United Kingdom.

Passports: Children

Alberto Costa: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of including parents' surnames in the passports of their children.

Kevin Foster: Details in passports are fixed at the time of issue for the life time of that document.Any parental details included in a passport at issue may not reflect subsequent changes in parental responsibility and so could not be relied upon from a safeguarding context by either border staff or other public sector agencies.The passport is a travel document and its purpose is to confirm identity and nationality for the purposes of travel rather than relationship status.We therefore have no plans to include parents' surnames in child passports.

Passports: Children

Alberto Costa: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department has taken to help prevent mothers from being stopped at border control on entry to the UK as a result of having a different surname recorded in their passport to the surnames of their accompanying children.

Kevin Foster: Border Force officers have an obligation under Section 55 of the Borders Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 to carry out their core function with due regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in the UK. This includes being satisfied a child crossing the border is not accompanied by someone who poses a threat to them.At the primary control point, Border Force officers are the first point of contact with UK authorities for many vulnerable children and adults as well as the criminals who traffic them. Where there are concerns, Border Force officers will seek to establish the relationship between children and accompanying adults before allowing them to proceed.Border Force officers will therefore make relevant enquiries where there are concerns as to an arriving child’s welfare or safety. However, Border Force officers have been instructed that in the absence of any cause for concern, they should not routinely pose questions to an adult who is travelling with a child simply because they have different surnames.There is also a leaflet which explains the reason an individual may be questioned at the primary checkpoint when travelling with a child, and Border Force’s legal obligations to keep children safe. The information in the leaflet is found on the GOV.UK website and it is also provided by way of the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-travelling-to-the-uk

Asylum: Families

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to publish proposals for continuing the family reunification scheme after the transition period; and if she will make a statement.

Chris Philp: At the end of the Transition Period, the UK will no longer be bound by the Dublin Regulation. Any Dublin family reunion cases, which have entered the system prior to completion day will continue to be processed.The Government provides a safe and legal route to bring families together through its refugee family reunion policy under the Immigration Rules. This allows a partner and children under 18 of those granted protection in the UK to join them here, if they formed part of the family unit before the sponsor fled their country. This will not change at the end of the Transition Period.

Cabinet Office

Elections: Proof of Identity

Theresa Villiers: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he plans to introduce voter ID as a requirement in elections.

Chloe Smith: The Government is committed to introducing Voter ID to strengthen the integrity of our electoral system and give the public confidence that our elections are secure and fit for the 21st century.We will bring forward legislation when Parliamentary time allows.

Treasury

Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield

Nick Fletcher: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of establishing Doncaster Sheffield Airport as a freeport.

Jesse Norman: The Government is committed to running a fair, transparent and robust allocation process to select up to 10 freeports across the UK. The Government is currently consulting publicly on freeports policy; the finalised policy and a bidding process will be announced in due course after the consultation has concluded.

Women and Equalities

Females: STEM Subjects

Adam Afriyie: What steps the Government is taking to encourage girls to study STEM subjects.

Elizabeth Truss: We want to see more girls studying STEM subjects and are committed to improving the gender balance in computing, maths and physics, where uptake by girls is low. We are funding several interventions in this area. A-levels mathematics students are likely to earn on average 11 per cent more on their salary by the time they are 34, than students who choose not to study maths. Indeed, studying STEM can lead to a wide range of brilliant careers - from computer scientist to Minister for Women and Equalities.

Career Breaks

Aaron Bell: What steps the Government Equalities Office is taking to support people in returning to work after a career break.

Elizabeth Truss: We fully support those looking to return to employment, particularly with caring responsibilities. However, we need more employers like Obelisk Support, who recognise the value of flexible working and can support this huge amount of untapped talent.

Housing: Disability

Liz Twist: What discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on the start date for the consultation on accessible housing.

Luke Hall: We have been working across government on accessible housing provision and will consult shortly on options to raise accessibility standards in new homes.The consultation will consider making higher accessibility standards mandatory, recognising the importance of suitable homes for older and disabled people.

Pupils: Bullying

Scott Benton: What steps she is taking to tackle (a) homophobic and (b) transphobic bullying in schools.

Elizabeth Truss: Since 2016, the government has funded a programme supporting primary and secondary schools in England to tackle homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying. The programme has reached over 1,800 schools so far. I am clear that no child should be bullied for any reason at all.